Alberta's transport minister could hear the horns blaring from his office.
It wasn't a rally or protest on Edmonton's legislature grounds, but Devin Dreeshen walked outside to find it was the sound of confused and angry drivers.
“It was a truck that hit the bridge and was stopped and was disrupting traffic all along 109,” he recalled of the summer gridlock.
Five times this year, large trucks heading for the double-decker High Level Bridge, located a stone's throw west of the Legislative Building, have crashed into the structure. Ten more times the trucks stopped until it was too late.
Dreeshen hopes the government can address the problem right out the door with new policies and potentially increased fines for truckers.
The 112-year-old steel truss bridge is a striking landmark in the center of Alberta's capital. It rises above the North Saskatchewan River and is over 750 meters wide.
It initially supported horses and buggies, trains, early automobiles and streetcars. The Canadian Pacific Railway, which built the bridge, ceased freight traffic on the upper deck in 1989.
The height of the lower level is 3.2 meters, or 10.6 feet, which means that only a few centimeters will fit on the bus. Most semi-finished products and other large equipment are unusable.
Bright yellow signs along the preceding median warn trucks to pull over before it's too late, but many try to squeeze through anyway.
Police say the bridge has been hit 21 times in the past six years, with 63 trucks stopping in time but causing traffic jams due to the need to reverse.
This is not a new phenomenon. Photos of trucks crippled by the bridge dating back at least 50 years can be found in city archives.
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The bridge's construction was considered a key reason for the amalgamation of the cities of Edmonton on the north bank of the river and Strathcona on the south in 1912.
This achievement is partly why the bridge was designated a local historic resource in 1995, obliging Edmonton to maintain it but not make drastic changes.
However, some changes have been made.
In 2005, the city shut off the taps of the man-made waterfall, which for 25 years had been draining thousands of liters of chlorinated tap water from the bridge during the summer holidays. Nearly a decade after the falls dried up, programmable lights were installed on the bridge to recognize events and pay tribute.
Emergency phones and higher barriers were installed in 2016 to curb suicide attempts, a long-standing problem on the bridge.
City spokeswoman Nicole Boychuk said in an email that High Level is due for maintenance and crews plan to have everything done.
She did not specify whether it is possible to increase the ground clearance for trucks. “The City is exploring options to ensure the most appropriate investment in the High Level Bridge.”
Dreeshen, Alberta's transport minister since 2022, said a “naughty list” for truckers could help.
The new provincial policy, which is being phased in, will require truck drivers to provide a driver's certificate when they try to change jobs, Dreeshen said.
“If you get fired from the company you work for because you hit a bridge, when you go to work for another company or another company wants to hire you, they will see that you were on the naughty list and that you hit a bridge in the past,” he said in a recent interview.
“You can't hide as much as you could in the past.”
Provinces can currently impose fines of $10,000 for bridge clashes, Drieshen said. He added that as part of a large-scale review of relevant legislation planned for next year, this figure could become even higher.
The review could also give the provincial motor vehicle registration authority new powers to suspend or confiscate driver's licenses.
“Whether it's educating trucking companies (or) increasing fines as a deterrent, we want to make sure we can keep our roads safe,” Dreeshen said.
Jürgen Henn is not sure that more serious fines will prevent such incidents.
For more than a decade, Henn photographed a bridge outside his North Carolina office window that became famous for being hit by trucks. His YouTube channel features nearly 200 disaster videos that have received nearly 100 million views.
The Durham bridge is known as the “Can Opener” for its ability to rip off the tops of semi-trailers.
“Drivers have a pretty good incentive to not run over the bridge,” said Henn, the technology specialist.
“Most of them are devastated both professionally and personally. It's just very embarrassing.”
In 2021, crews raised the Durham Bridge, creating about 20 centimeters (the length of an average banana) of additional clearance. This reduced the frequency and destructiveness of collisions, but did not solve the problem, Henn said.
But he believes the real reason trucks are hitting him less often lately is because a new highway opened nearby, reducing the need for trucks using the bridge.
Henn sold pieces of metal left over from the trucks as “salvage art.” He also makes and sells breeches T-shirts, which he says he wears proudly around town.
His advice to Edmonton and Alberta is to eliminate the need for trucks in the area. But he acknowledged that this was likely not feasible.
“There’s no way to fully defend this situation,” Henn said.
“This is a worldwide phenomenon. Where there are trucks and low bridges, they will collide.”
